1. Field of the Invention
This invention related to a hemodialysis apparatus and blood dialysis methods and specifically to an improved hemodialysis apparatus and blood dialysis methods employing electromagnetic radiation, including visible light radiation and near infrared radiation, to purify blood.
2. Description of Related Art
Hemodialysis therapy is an extracorporeal (i.e., outside the body) process which removes toxins and water from a patient's blood. Hemodialysis machines are well known in the art and are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,598,727, 4,172,033, 4,267,040, and 4,769,134. A hemodialysis machine pumps blood from the patient, through a dialyzer, and then back to the patient. The dialyzer removes the toxins and water from the blood utilizing osmosis, membrane diffusion, and ultrafiltration principles. Typically, a patient with chronic kidney disease requires hemodialysis three times per week for 3-6 hours per session. Removing blood from the body requires a vascular access to the patient's blood system. This vascular access can be accomplished by surgically modifying the patient's own blood vessels or attaching an artificial device to the vessels. If the vascular access site is entirely beneath the skin, the skin and the vascular site must be punctured by a needle attached to blood tubing. This needle and tubing is typically called a “set”.
Long-term hemodialysis may result in many complications including worsening of renal anemia, cardiovascular diseases, and loss of the remaining renal function. Conventional hemodialysis machines remove toxins and water from the patient's blood only, but do not address cardiovascular complications or anemia generally resulting from long-term hemodialysis. Specifically, patients undergoing long-term dialysis generally die as a result of cardiovascular complications rather than as a result of kidney failure.
Light-irradiation therapies have been used in medicine. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,113,566 and 6,951,548. Subjecting blood to ultraviolet light irradiation has been known to kill and eliminate a host of bacterial infections, germs, viruses, and other harmful pathogens and toxins from the body. In addition, exposure of blood to electromagnetic radiation in other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum may have other effects including enhancing the healing of wounds, eliminating free radicals, delaying skin aging, improving skin condition and complexion, reducing blood viscosity, increasing oxygen-carrying capacity of blood, regulating the immune system, and many others.
However, the benefits of light irradiation have not heretofore been employed in connection with hemodialysis so as to lower the risks thereof. Accordingly, much work remains to be done in this area of science and medicine.